The Phantom of The Opera (1983)
The Phantom of the (1983) was a US TV Series loosely adapted from the original Novel of the same name written by Sherman Yellen and directed by Robert Markowitz staring Maximilian Schell, Jane Seymour and Michael York as the three leads, the series uses several elements from other film versions of Phantom. Plot Budapest at the beginning of the 20th century: In the Budapest Opera House rehearsals for a staging of Gounod's Faust take place under the renowned conductor Sandor Korvin. The role of the Margarete ''occupied Sandor with his young, still inexperienced wife, the soprano Elena, during a break the owner of the opera, Baron Hunyadi offers Elena the chance to be a star by sleeping with him, Elena as a happily married woman rejects. Hunyadi now vows to make her début in a fiasco. The audience whistles mercilessly, and the acknowledged opera critic Kraus sets, inspired by a generous tip of the baron, that same evening a negative review in the newspaper. In desperation, Elena takes her own life, she plunges into the Danube. Sandor heartbroken begins a vicious vendetta to find the one responsible for the death of his wife. He seeks out the critic Kraus to confront him, he reveals that the Baron caused the scene, but the situation escalates, a fight ensues where Kraus is shot and a Bottle of Sulphuric Acid spills over Sandor's face. He is saved by Lajos the opera's Rat-catcher who steals plans and items from the Opera including a mask for Sandor. Disfigured beyond recognition, he retires to the abandoned vaults under the opera to wait for the right moment for his revenge. Four years later: under the direction of the young director Michael Hartnell a new production of "Faust" with the arrogant diva Brigida Bianchi is to be performed. After a quarrel with Madame Bianchi he takes the young Maria Gianelli as a understudy. Even Sandor, who witness to her audition, has discovered the young woman and believes her as his deceased wife Elena. He makes contact with her and offers her to develop her voice to perfection. To do this, he invites her to his old house, asks her not to tell anyone about them and pranks Brigida so that she leaves for Maria to début. While a romance develops between Maria and Michael, the Phantom reacts with raging jealousy and threatens him with death. Michael decides to drop Maria despite her improved voice and reinstalls Brigida. During the annual masked ball Maria and the Phantom met and he warns her that she is his and so Maria leaves with the Baron Hunyadi who offered her a ride home earlier, however the Lajos abducts Maria and Hunyadi. When confronted Hunyadi promises to make amends, by making Maria the star Elena should been. The Phantom pretends to let the Baron go but has him hacked to death by his trained raven and his corpse is found in his Opera House during a rehearsal. The Phantom tells Maria he wants to keep her with him, in the secret chambers under the opera, in order to spare her the cruel fate of his wife. In the course of Maria trying to get The Phantom to let her go, she tears off his mask and reveals his gruesome, mutilated face. He becomes furious and tells her that she has lost the chance to get free forever. Michael does not believe in the theory of the police inspector that the baron's killer probably also killed Maria as a potential witness, and begins to investigate. When he hears of some stage workers the tragedy of Sandor Korvin and his wife, who looks so much like Maria, he suspects that Korvin may still be alive and could hide somewhere in or under the opera. In an archive he gets the plans of the substructure of the opera and finds the way to the hiding place of the Phantom through the sewers and after battling Lajos he frees Maria. Knowing that Sandor will try and capture Maria again Michael and the Inspector decide to trap the Phantom when Faust premières. That night Korvin who has finally gone mad after the repeated loss of "his wife", decides to commit his last act of revenge on the cruel world. He travels to the Chandelier's Dome and begins to saw the chain, as underneath it is the Inspector. Maria while in an Box despite the fact Michael, the Inspector and police are everywhere, is scared the Phantom is close as the Auditorium's décor has masks and statures reminding her of him. Maria leaves the Box and the Inspector seeing this finds her in the lobby, he convinces her to use his seat instead and she does. The Phantom notices Maria and attempts to climb back up the dome but the chain is already sawn through and he watches in fear as it finally breaks. Maria notices the falling chandelier in time as does everyone else, and she manages to escape together with the audience. The Phantom himself dies, crushed under the heavy chandelier, without his mask. Cast * '''Maximilian Schell' - Sándor Korvin/The Phantom of the Opera - Formally was the orchestra conductor before he became the Phantom. * Jane Seymour - Maria Gianelli - An Italian/American who dreams of becoming a great singer. She also resembles The Phantom's late-wife. ** Jane Seymour also plays Elena Korvin - Sándor Korvin's wife who commits suicide. * Michael York - Michael Hartnell - English opera director and Maria's love interest. * Jeremy Kemp - Baron Hunyadi - Owner of The Opera House, who takes pleasure in having affairs with the leading ladies. * Diana Quick - Madame Brigida Bianchi - Spoilt diva who cares only for herself. * Paul Brooke - Inspector - Police inspector who investigates Korvin. * Gellért Raksányi - Lajos - The Rat catcher who works alongside The Phantom. Differences from the Book/Trivia. * The Film is set in 1900's Budapest, when the original was set in Paris in the 1890's, there is electric light, gramophones and cars as important features. * There is no lake underneath the Opera House. * Michael Hartnell replaces Raoul, Baron Hunyadi replaces the Mangers and The Inspector is clearly The Persian in this version's rewrite. * Elena, the critics and the cleaning ladies are all original characters. * While the script is different to the original book, when the unmasking scene happens The Phantom's first line is directly taken from the Leroux novel "Aright you wanted to see it, see it" * Korvin's look as the Phantom is familiar to the look of Claude Rains in the 1943 version. * The disfigurement by Acid is taken from Song at Midnight and then reused in both the 1943 version and the 1962 version. * Baron Hunyadi could be an rewrite of the villain of the 1962 version Lord Ambrose D'Arcy. * The chandelier crash at the end was used to end the 1962 version. * The use of an Turkish Bath in one scene and the character of the Rat-catcher would be reused in the 1989 and 1998 version. Category:Television Adaptations